August 31. 2006 (LBO) – Motorists, businesses and households are to be whacked with a fuel and electricity price hike from Friday, as the Ceylon Electricity Board and Lanka IOC, jack up rates.

Petrol and diesel prices are to go up from seven rupees a unit, with petrol selling at 105 rupees and diesel at 73 rupees a litre from midnight Thursday.

The increase will offset losses the fuel retailer is making on each litre, K Ramakrishnan, Managing Director of LIOC said.

State oil giant Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), which controls two thirds of the fuel market, currently sells petrol at 96 rupees and diesel at 64 rupees.

Lanka IOC reported a net loss of 584.0 million rupees for the three months ended June, with unpaid subsidy payments of 116.0 million rupees from the Sri Lankan government.

Hefty Bills

Sri Lanka's state utility the Ceylon Electricity Board said Thursday it would also hike tariffs for use above 30 units, to grapple with soaring costs of diesel used to fire its power plants.

Ceylon Electricity Board -- Sept '06
price revision

Domestic

New unit (Rs.)

Old unit (Rs.)

Fixed charge (Rs.)

0 - 30 units

3.00

3.00

60.00

31-60 units

4.70

3.70

90.00

61-90 units

5.10

4.10

120.00

91-180 units

12.10

10.60

180.00

181 and above

17.30

15.80

240.00

(Source: Ceylon Electricity Board)

Users below 30 units – smaller domestic users, will be exempt, while consumers and businesses using between 30 and 90 units will be charged at extra 1.00 rupee a unit.

Above 90 units, users will be charged an added 1.50 rupees a unit, together with a 20 percent fuel charge on the final unit cost – affecting mainly commercial customers.

About a million of the 3.2 million domestic customers fall within the 30 unit bracket. The CEB sells about seven billion units of electricity each year to homes, industries, businesses, shops, schools, for religious use and street lighting.

Ceylon Electricity Board -- Sept '06
price revision

Religious

New unit (Rs.)

Old unit (Rs.)

Fixed charge (Rs.)

0 - 30 units

2.50

2.50

60.00

31-90 units

3.70

2.70

90.00

91-180 units

5.50

4.00

180.00

180 units and over

8.70

7.20

240.00

(Source: Ceylon Electricity Board)

The price hike only covers domestic and religious users and not general purpose and industrial users who are on a different tariff bracket.

The last electricity tariff hike was in 2002, with only an increase in fixed charges in February this year.

The CEB is burdened with a 25 billion rupee debt on its books, largely due to selling electricity at an average of 7.60 rupees a unit, well below the 12.50 rupee a unit cost of generation, the board said in a statement Thursday.

Costs of generation have reached 15.00 rupee a unit levels before, due to the CEB’s heavy dependence on expensive thermal fuel. About 65 percent of generation is from petroleum.

Why did you implying this story that commercial and industrial customers will not be affected by the electricity price hike? Businesses will see their bills rising up to 35%. The increases were gazetted on July 19, but not a single comment was received in the 1 month allowed for objections, I was told!

1.Das SamuelSep 01

The writing is on the wall.From the day Premadasa vetoed the Mawella Coal Power Project the nation has become dependent more and more on Oil.The International Oil Lobby which has/had politicians/engineers in its pocket,is delighted.We never had a Marcos bold enough to veto objections and implement Coal Power,for the good of the nation.Sri Lanka is the only nation which sells oil to a captive market at a loss for past five decades!!